The Board of Directors of New York City Opera has announced that Charles R. Wall was unanimously elected Chairman of the Board effective December 16, 2010. He succeeds Susan L. Baker, who will “step down” after seven years of “dedicated service.” Read more »

Lincoln Center’s Great Performers presents Diana Damrau on Saturday, December 10th, joined by Xavier de Maistre on harp, performing works by Debussy, Strauss, Fauré, and more. A regular at the Met Opera, Damrau has been called “a soprano of matchless intelligence” (Guardian).

“One of the greatest proponents of the German lied tradition” (New York Times), baritone Christian Gerhaher performs an all-Mahler program on Saturday, December 17th, featuring Gerold Huber on piano. The Telegraph calls him “the most moving singer in the world.”

Hey, remember how New York City Opera threw this big gala last fall to salute the billionaire teabagger, Astroturfer and enemy of Net Neutrality David H. Koch? Now, La Cieca is sure that in the intervening months you have been asking yourself, “What could NYCO possibly do to top this ill-advised exaltation of someone who really doesn’t deserve to be honored? Who could NYCO possibly find who would be a less popular and appropriate target for veneration?” I warn you, cher public, you are not going to believe who the honoree is for the spring gala.

The maniacal laughter of incorrigible NYCO nemesis Manuela Hoelterhoff continues to echo through the halls of Castle Bloomberg this morning, as yet another of the executive editor’s gang of henchscribes gloats over yesterday’s announcement of a curtailed season at the company that dared to snub Francesca Zambello. Poor paltry fools!

“There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications — to put it plainly! The four-letter word deprived us of our plantation, till finally all that was left — and Stella can verify that! — was the house itself and about twenty acres of ground, including a graveyard, to which now all but Stella and I have retreated!” [NYT]

The amazing acute hearing of Anthony Tommasini detects an improvement in the acoustic of that place they used to call the New York State Theater, in fact, he’s willing to commit that the sound is “considerably better than it used to be.” Which is pretty fucking impressive, considering that the last time TT heard an “unenhanced” opera performance in that space was more than 10 years ago.